


Gone but not forgotten

by HirenShei



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Memory Loss, Not Canon Compliant, One Shot, Platonic Relationships, Self-Indulgent, almost tooth rotting fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23285656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HirenShei/pseuds/HirenShei
Summary: " Even if we cannot meet up here anymore, as long as we keep thinking of each other, we are never truly apart. "Memories are tricky things, the treatment doesn't always take. Remnants linger, illusive to Namine's touch. Roxas remembers someone he shouldn't. That same someone won't rest until he has his friend back.
Relationships: Axel & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 10





	Gone but not forgotten

Memories are tricky. Unpredictable and elusive, they are the basis of a heart. Even when encoded as data, there are instances when the heart proves stronger than any code.  
Hearts tied to the keyblade bearer even more so.

Roxas's data was no exception, and that caused conflict in the witch's heart. Where DiZ saw only numbers and measures of progress or setbacks, hers was troubled by how this heart fought her touch and struggled to remember the things she tried to take.

"What is wrong?" A smooth voice asked.   
Naminé turned to face him, entrusting her emotions to the other.   
"He fights my touch." 

The other tilted his hooded head. "Does he give you trouble?"

Further worry seeped into her expression. "No, but I feel-"  
Her voice stilled as a dark smell wafted through the room, signaling an arrival.

A dark portal opened, revealing the man known only as DiZ. 

"I trust you are making good progress, Naminé."

Only after the man had left her drawing-room, did the hooded man return. She sensed his worry. Worriedly she fiddled with one of her crayons as he approached. 

"Roxas is fighting you?" 

"He is." She admitted. "He doesn't hinder me." She quickly clarified, hoping to avoid another visit to be found necessary.  
"Then what has you worried?" The other asked, forging a layer of softness in his voice.

Here she didn't knew how to put what she felt into the right words. 

"He-... clings to the memories I took from him." She looked to the other. "He dreams of that which is gone and should be overwritten. He struggles to remember." Her eyes lingered to the shoddy looking diary that rested on one of the pure white shelves in the room.   
"No matter what we take from him- these memories linger. I feel as if-... as if he is struggling with all his life to keep them."

The other took a seat, sinking into thought. "We need him in order for Sora to wake." 

"I know. But at the same time, I feel as though I am taking one life to save another." She sighed, her hands clinging to her sketchbook.  
"Sora's Nobody- it's almost as if he gained his own heart. One which is actively resisting me."

"What can we do?"

Naminé looked at the other, feeling her throat swell as emotions she knew she shouldn't have reared its head.   
"I don't know, Riku."

+++

Something was off. It had been off for a long time. 

Still covered in cold sweat, Roxas jumped out of bed and sat on his desk. He dragged his new diary open and hastily scribbled down what fragments of his dreams he could remember. But this time he no longer wrote it in their normal script.   
He had memorized his cipher and began to write in what to other eyes would appear to be some sort of code.   
With a triumphant grin, he finished and snapped the book shut before hiding it in his new best hidingplace, above the rafters.  
Not long after he got down from his wobbly chair he got to starting breakfast, reminding him of his meet-up with his friends.

"I dreamed of that man with the red spiky hair again last night." He spoke in between wolfing his sandwich down. Olette looked up from her bowl of oatmeal. "That's a new one."

Roxas sighed. "I dreamed of him most of this summer, Olette. I told you about him before." He frowned.  
"I don't remember you ever mentioning someone with that description," Hayner spoke up. "I'd like to think I'd remember such an outlandish fashion choice."  
"Mhm-" Roxas, sighed with frustration.

"Don't you think how it's weird no one remembers all the strange stuff that happens to me?" Roxas asked Pence, who answered with a small shrug.   
"I dunno Roxas, you've always had these outlandish stories."

"I am not making them up." He defended. 

"Right." Hayner chuckled. "Let's leave the fantasy crap be and get us some munny. The beach doesn't pay for itself."

Sometimes he'd nearly believe it. That somehow he was making all these weird things up, or perhaps that he was some kind of crazy. Everyone else seemed to think so.  
Yet those dreams... they felt different than normal dreams.

His diary remained safely stowed the following days. Page by page was filled with his dreams of a man dressed in a long black coat and hair like fire. Sitting on the same ledge as they did. Loving the same ice-cream they loved...

+++

"He has stopped fighting." Naminé concluded with surprise in her eyes. Gaining the attention of both DiZ and the other robed figure, she averted her eyes.

"Good. High time he did." Were DiZ's only words. Yet the other looked worried again.

After DiZ's departure, he approached.

"He got into a fight with his friends." Naminé explained. "About the anomalies that have been troubling DiZ. No one else believed him."

"You are sad." The other concluded. 

"I feel remnants of what Roxas feels." She tried for a smile, finding a small one. "He is hurt, he thinks he may truly be crazy."

"We cannot stop." The other spoke with more of a forlorn emotion than she had ever seen out of DiZ. "Sora needs to wake."

"I know." Naminé looked up, grasping her grey crayon. "I know..."

+++

"Fuckers..." Axel felt his throat swell. Up above him sat four figures on the clocktower.   
"That is our spot." 

Axel had to be cautious, this was a programmed simulation. No doubt full of sensors, he could count his lucky stars for simply slipping in here without tripping off some alarm.   
"At least Vexen's good for something." He tempered his voice and himself on his self-assigned recon job. He couldn't afford to fail. 

Judging by what he found, Naminé had done an excellent job. So excellent in fact, he regretted not ending her existence in Castle Oblivion when he had the chance. Here she was, taking his best friend apart as a thank you.

It infuriated him, but it was rage he couldn't use right now. The programs in this simulation didn't feel and who knew what sort of sensors this thing had. Muffling his anger back where it came from, however, was harder than he thought. 

"Axel." Naminé's voice would have been the flashpoint for his anger, but right now, he couldn't afford to let loose.

"What have you done to him?" He asked, trying to keep his contempt from sparking into a blaze. "Replacing his memories with-" He gestured upwards. "-that?" He sneered.

"You need to leave before DiZ finds you." Naminé answered whilst cradling her stomach. Her expression was forged in a mask, but it was already showing cracks from the strain.

"You are erasing him!" Axel flared out, then tried to reel his anger back in. It didn't help. "You are taking his identity from him. Replacing real memories with this- sham." He swung his arm downwards and felt his fingers itch to summon his weapon.  
"You are taking everything from him! All to assuage your bloody conscience!"

Bracing, Naminé stepped back. "It is the only way for Sora to awaken-"

"I don't care! Roxas is my friend. I won't let you use him like this." Axel's voice cooled, causing her to take another pair of steps back before finally vanishing.

Furious with frustration he threw his fist in the digital wall. Looking up, he saw their tower, bathed in golden light.  
Roxas was there, right there. So close, but still hopelessly out of reach.

+++

Roxas twisted around and came to a stop, leaving his friends to go on without him. Rush-hour was here, the tram common was busy with traffic and people, yet he thought he had seen something familiar-...

Searching he weaved through the people to see if he had been right, or if it had been a dream after all. That red hair.

He had dreamed of that person a lot, but he knew for sure he had seen him once, too. Weeks ago. Pence had even caught him on camera.  
That red-haired man. He had kept that picture in his diary before losing it. 

Proof that he wasn't nuts.

But then he up and lost his diary, and as the days stitched together he began to wonder if he hadn't just been daydreaming.

Seeing a streak of brilliant red hair among the crowd had gotten his heart to speed up. But no matter how he sought and looked, he didn't see him again. 

"Red-haired man?" Hayner wondered. "Nope, haven't seen anyone like that. Why so?"

"Remember? We took a picture of him a while ago. I lost it but-"

Hayner shrugged before shaking his head. "Doesn't ring a bell, you sure you didn't imagine it?"

Roxas deflated. "No- I am sure." He spoke, but the words had lost their fire after being repeated so often. 

"We- he asked me all sorts of weird questions, remember?"

"Roxas..." Olette's concern felt sour to him. He shrugged and turned around, leaving before he'd need to repeat himself once again. 

'I am not crazy.'

+++

"-even if we are apart, as long as we keep thinking about one another, we are together."   
Clear as if the words had just been spoken to him, the words rested on Roxas's lips as he shot awake. The man with the red hair had spoken them.  
Hurriedly he pushed his desk chair to the middle of his room and climbed ontop to retrieve his diary.

Once the sentence was safely committed to paper in code, Roxas finally relaxed.   
"As long as we keep thinking of one another..." He mused quietly, noting he had gotten up rather early. "I wonder if that is why I keep thinking of you." He frowned, pushing his pen to paper to sketch out the pointy locks he remembered from his dream. "...maybe that means you are thinking of me too."  
Roxas looked up to hear the bells chime.   
"I wonder if we were friends?"

The rest of the day left little room for speculation, his job requiring all the focus he had. The mail wouldn't deliver itself.

Yet when evening came around, the golden clocktower left Roxas with a strange feeling in his chest.   
"Want to go and eat dinner up there?" Hayner had caught him staring. 

"Sure, why not. We've earned a good view." Roxas hummed tired.   
"As long as it doesn't rain." Olette chuckled and the group of friends sans one sat down. 

"Pence, there you are. Work kept you late?" Hayner asked as the fourth member of their friend group sat down.   
"You wouldn't believe." He smiled sallow before finding a grin as he stared at his dinner. 

"Oh, the joys of a good meal." Olette chuckled. 

For a moment, the world hampered and came to a standstill. Roxas just sighed. "That makes thirty-three." He gazed at his dinner before then finally the world restarted again with a jerk. Hayner began speaking in the middle of a sentence. "You know- I've been thinking." The group looked at him.  
"We never need to worry, even if we cannot gather here like this anymore." The youth gestured with a grin. "Even if we are apart, as long as we keep thinking about one another, we are together."

Roxas froze, then dropped his chicken wing, causing it to sail down to the steps below.   
"Roxas?" Pence wondered. 

"Nothing..." He stuttered, his gaze still locked a thousand yards away. 

"No need to flinch whenever I say something mature." Hayner frowned. "I am capable of maturity, you know?"  
"Riiight." Olette jabbed him in the rib. But all this time Roxas still sat motionless, his eyes now unfocussed.

+++

The loud screech of a chair drew Riku's attention. He hurried over to her drawing-room, finding Naminé standing back from her drawing table.

"Naminé?" He called. But the girl did not respond. Tears stained her cheeks instead. She wasn't quite sure what to do with them.   
On the table, Riku saw a snapped crayon and a broken drawing, worriedly he looked at her. She had covered her eyes.

"The ties are too strong. I cannot sever them." She explained, now cradling a cup of tea. "Whatever illusion I place, his subconscious guides him past them." She shook her head, displaying clear signs of fear.   
"Their bond, it-.." She hesitated, but Riku silently encouraged her to speak her mind.

"It rivals the bond you share with Sora." She shook her head. 

Her discovery had left him conflicted. For the brief moment he had met Roxas, he had seen nothing but his fury. Yet now, he was beginning to harbor thoughts he could do without. 

"But at what price?" He had asked DiZ in the ruins of Hollow Bastion. The man hadn't received the question well. Motivated by vengeance, Riku wasn't sure if we wished to defer to him any longer. Yet waking Sora without his aid would be difficult. 

'Sora. What would you do?'

+++

"He needs... motivation." The words brought unease to Riku when he heard DiZ speak them.   
"Why so?"   
"Because development has arrested again. He is becoming stubborn again." DiZ's fingers flew over the keys.  
"Time to help things along."

+++

"-because you'll hurt yourself." Hayner's worried tone sent off a flare of annoyance in his stomach. Yet when he opened his eyes, the train he had so clearly seen, was gone.  
Nothing but empty tracks greeted him. Distraught he looked around.   
"But-" He stammered as an ordinary train rolled into the station, Hayner still firmly held on to his wrist. 

"-I saw it. I saw the ghost train-" He looked to the rest of his friends, but found nothing but worried glances, with a single uneasy smile meant to assure him all was well.  
"There was no train, Roxas." Hayner explained.

In a fit of frustration, Roxas pulled his arm free and stepped away, walking to the end of the platform.   
"I SAW it!" He gasped, then looked to the rest of his friends, who looked at one another.   
Who was going to calm him down this time? 

Roxas let out a scream of frustration. 

"Roxas..." Hesitantly, Olette approached him. "Maybe you need to go and see a doctor.." She tried to tell him gently, but Roxas was having none of it. 

"I know what I saw Olette!" He yelled at her before walking down the length of the platform, his blood boiling in his veins. 

His diary didn't offer him much solace. Having written out the frustration, Roxas felt exhausted. He rested his head on his desk. The evening breeze tugged on his hair before flipping the diary's pages. 

"My tally page." He mumbled before bringing himself upright. "World freezes, 51. Weird occurrences-" He saw the number but felt his motivation to read out the rest slip. 

"I am not crazy..." he sighed. 

The wind threw some more pages, landing on that one sketch of the red-haired man he had made. 

Long did Roxas stare before he noticed the darker stains that were forming on the paper. Sitting up, he felt his cheek, his fingers glistened in the twilight light.   
"Tears-?" He wondered before letting his head fall in his arms. 

"What is wrong with me?"

+++

Missing a lock or three wasn't too bad. As long as he didn't look in the mirror a bunch, he'd be fine, ...probably.   
The threat made earlier, however, troubled him far more. So much that he had dragged his feet before coming back to twilight town.  
Why Xigbar had let him get away with slacking, he'd never guess. But Xaldin wasn't so forgiving.   
His life was on the line.

As if he needed more motivation to bring Roxas back into the fold.

'Sitting alone up here, really just isn't the same without you.'

The digitized version of the town was scarily life-like but as real as it all seemed. It couldn't hold up a candle to the real deal. Roxas deserved the real deal, not this cleverly disguised prison.

Yet he had seemed so happy when he had first approached him. The encounter was burned in his memory as if it happened yesterday.   
He flat-out hadn't recognized him. He was out skateboarding, meeting up with his friends. The total lack of recognition had stabbed him where his heart should have been. He almost felt like he was intruding, Roxas had no idea of the gilded cage he was being kept in. Naminé saw to that.

That is why Roxas's expression caught him by surprise this time, he saw the youth wander past, troubled and in deep thought.   
He looked nothing like he had before. 

Yet before he could move, Vexen's device began spitting out warnings left and right.  
The world around him destabilized, corrupted data encircled him. 

"This has to be one of his new toys-" He cursed under his breath before moving in the only direction left open to him.

+++

"Roxas quit brooding. Trust me, if you had fallen from the clock tower, you wouldn't be sitting here." Hayner grinned. "You just imagined it."

"Did I?" Roxas felt his anger stir in his chest, but as the world once again froze, he had a moment to scream it out. Standing on the edge, the world resumed with a jerk. 

"Why won't you believe a word I say?" Roxas asked Hayner. "Why is it every time I say something you all make that face?" He eyed the rest of them. "That face of 'who is going to tell him this time?'" Roxas threw his fists down. "I am sick of it!" He panted. 

"Roxas-..." Olette's eyes pierced into him with a sense of sympathy that now felt bitter on Roxas's tongue. 

"You all think I am crazy!" He clenched his fists together. "You don't say it, but you all think it, frankly I cannot understand why you still want to hang out with me anymore if you won't believe me." His expression hardened.  
"I cannot understand it either."

"Roxas, don't say that." Pence tried, but Roxas was through. "We are just looking out for you-"

"I don't need it." He bit back. "I will prove it to all of you what is wrong here. " Roxas faced the edge, much like he had accidentally done yesterday. The fall had led to a strange conversation and a blood-chilling series of nightmares that felt far too real to be just a dream.   
Yet he was willing to brave it all again if it meant to finally be understood. 

Thus, he stepped into the void.

+++

"ROXAS!" Axel didn't know what possessed the kid as he saw him fall. He could swear the kid turned mid-fall to look in his direction, but the world froze right as Axel tried to call out again. Vexen's device screamed a warning to his head that a reset command had been given, next thing he knew, the device pulled him out of the simulation and back to the aft of the mansion.   
If he had a heart, he was quite sure it'd rage in his chest. 

"Shit shit shit-" Axel turned on his heels and summoned a dark portal right before a different portal formed. 

+++

"Trust me, Roxas, if you had done that you wouldn't be standing here now."

In a fit of pure frustration born rage, Roxas threw himself over the edge again. But before he hit the ground he stood back atop the tower once again.

"See?! I fell!"

"Really, again?" Hayner asked with an annoyed look in his eyes.

Exasperated, Roxas looked up. Covered in cold sweat and with his heart pounding in his throat, he eyed Olette, but her answering gaze was one of disinterest.   
"This is stupid Roxas, come on, grow up." She sulked.

Roxas screamed in his hands.   
"What is going on! Why is this happening to me?!" He screamed into the sunset. 

+++

"This is preposterous!" DiZ cursed under his breath as he restarted the simulation fall after fall. "He shouldn't be able to fight like that, he is just a Nobody." 

Quietly, Naminé stood in the corner. Riku's hand rested on her shoulder as tears fell from her eyes.   
"We need to stop this-" She mouthed quietly to Riku, whose expression as Ansem was impossible to read. 

"He is destabilizing the simulation. Naminé, step in there and erase what you have to." DiZ commanded. 

Riku felt Naminé lean back against him under the man's intense gaze.

"If I erase his memories, I will destroy his heart." She looked up to DiZ. The man stopped typing, but his gaze remained fixed on the monitors.   
"He is a Nobody." DiZ spoke pointedly before turning to face her. "Nobodies have no heart nor a right to existence."

"Roxas is different." She held onto her sketchbook. "Being born without memories... he formed his own."

"Nonsense." DiZ dismissed her claim with the wave of his hand. "Nobodies will only ever remain Nobodies."

+++

The words still rung hard by the time she readied herself to get to work. But her conscience barred her from making haste, or even moving at all.   
Torn, she fought herself, at stake was her promise to Sora. Would he even know what keeping it would entail?  
Would he be able to live with knowing another heart went out to sustain his own?  
Would he forgive her for it?

DiZ would make sure he never knew. That realization washed over her, priming every single nerve in her body. 

It allowed her to feel his arrival. A dark corridor manifested not a second later. Only the person stepping out of it wasn't DiZ.

"Axel-" Her throat ceased up. 

"I saw." The pained Nobody was trapped in between fear and fury. "I saw what your toying made Roxas do." He stepped forward and grasped her white drawing table.   
"Help me stop this, Naminé." He laced his words with emotion so vivid, she wondered if he was truly like her. A Nobody, born without a heart to feel with.

Her conscience harrowed her, trapping her in between two walls of guilt as Axel's gaze bored into her. 

"You are trapping him in a cage worse than Marluxia ever did to you!"

Pained, she covered her ears and pulled up her knees. 

The sound of steel on steel resounded through the room as a second dark corridor opened. Riku shoved Axel back and away from the table. Fire met thunder and steel until two corridors formed and the pair vanished from her sight, leaving her alone with her torment.

+++

The world seized, people flickered in and out of existence as white stringing beings coasted through town. 

Roxas, running for what felt like hours, finally reached the woods.   
"Did I lose them?" He panted, only to be struck down from behind. Groaning, he got up and saw one of the strange beings from up close. The symbol on their head looked familiar. Achingly so.

'My liege-'

Roxas felt that same headache return as when he had first seen them. It burrowed behind his eyes, blinding him. 

"Enough!!" He yelled and bolted forward, but even with a practice sword, he couldn't connect a single hit. 

"This is just like that nightmare." He gasped and ran ahead. The town was crawling with these things. Ever since his falls, the world had been off. Moving slowly at first, then speeding up and slamming to a halt.   
Now he was here, at the haunted mansion, faced with a locked gate.   
Exasperated, he realized he was out of options.

The only thing left was that figment of his nightmare he still remembered. 

A key.

It was a long shot, but when the world seized like this, anything could happen.   
Hand outstretched he hoped. He hoped on answers. On friends, long forgotten and dearly beloved. 

With a flash of eye-searing light, that same giant key from his nightmares appeared in his hand. Instinct took over, the weight felt familiar in his arms.  
He drew the keyblade backward into a guarding stance before charging forward and whirling it around, striking a row of enemies in one swipe.

When the last of the white beings fell, a flash of light went off behind his eyes. Light coming from a lone heart-shaped moon in stormy skies suspended above a castle that crowned the world. 

With a gasp, he tore himself loose from the spell that came over him. More of those white beings were coming, too many to fight.  
And he was trapped. But as he wearily gazed around, his eyes found a giant lock hanging on the gate.   
Glancing to his giant key, then back to the lock, Roxas lined the pair up.  
But before he could do more, the key began to shine. A beam emitted from it, piercing the lock.

It's chains pooled on the floor, much to Roxas's surprise. 

"No time-" He defended against an incoming attack before slipping through the gate and slamming it shut.

+++

Axel's breath came ragged and fast. But injuries aside, he had gotten his opponent down on a knee. 

"I cannot let you succeed. Sora needs to awaken."

"Let him do it on his own, then." Axel spoke with cold rage lining his voice. 

"He needs Roxas."

"Like hell he does, that brat ran around just fine without Roxas." He spun his chakrams but wasn't ready to continue their bout yet.

"That was before Castle Oblivion." The other, 'Riku' countered.

"I don't care. I don't give a bloody fuck about your problems." He bit down a wolfish grin.   
"All I want is my best friend back." He tilted his head. "Get in my way 'n you get burned to a crisp!"

Watching from above, Naminé clutched her sketchbook. DiZ stood right behind her and she could smell the magic he wielded like a knife in her back as she sketched a hasted picture.

+++

The decrepit mansion showed little signs of use, the only light he could see came from a door down the hallway. A thin ribbon of light emanated from it.   
Inside stood a device he had trouble recognizing. It was the origin of the light.   
On its display formed lines upon lines of information. Roxas sat down and began reading through the hard to understand texts. 

Roxas almost gave up combing through the jibberish until he ran into a picture, held still by the static-filled machine.   
It was a picture of a boy that looked like him a lot, with only his hair being styled a bit more unkempt.   
"Sora." He read his name aloud, feeling a vague sense of familiarity clinging to the name.  
Searching on, he stumbled upon his own name, and from there on he felt the world freeze. It didn't hinder the machine in the slightest, which puzzled him. He didn't get the time to wonder, however, as the machine displayed a picture from Twilight town and began displaying current statistics, among which was a progress bar and an open file with notes regarding his tower jumping stint.

Slowly but surely, his world began falling apart as he read on. 

Everything he had ever seen. All the things no one had ever believed him about. It was all explained.  
A simulation.  
It was all an illusion. 

Roxas felt his world fall apart as he read the words on the screen. A deep-rooted feeling of vindication fought and lost to a white-hot anger that boiled through his veins. 

Words escaped him, reason had fallen short. Pure anger coursed through him as he tore up that device with his keyblade whilst roaring a guttural scream.   
Sparks flew and lights flickered before finally glass shattered and the machine sputtered out.

Exhausted, he stepped back. His anger had only grown fiercer, but before he could give in to it a second time, a strong burst of pain went off behind his eyes. Forcing him to his knees.   
Blood ran from his nose as he felt his grasp on reality slip.

+++

Naminé held her arms as she watched Axel fly in an arc, landing against a tree. Riku had called upon the darkness within him to finish the fight in a single fell swoop.   
The threat now contained, she saw DiZ step outside. Her early termination averted, she gazed down at the cost. A hastily drawn sketch of Kairi ripped from Roxas's memory.

Shivering of what couldn't possibly be fear, but felt a lot like it, she carefully made her way down and into DiZ's computer room. 

+++

"I do not understand your pity for these things." DiZ admonished Riku, who took everything in stride. Whether they be Axel's insults or DiZ's vengeful ramblings. Riku sought to find a center in it all.  
That had been a lot harder to do than he thought it would. Letting Axel slip away, however, wasn't something he felt bad about.   
Not considering these circumstances. 

Naminé looked a lot worse for wear, something that set off an alarm in Riku, but he'd have to look into it later, as DiZ needed him now. 

"I want you to get in there and set Roxas straight. If we can get him back to his room, then we stand a chance at fixing this horrid mess." Diz typed away.   
"Right." Riku sighed softly. He couldn't deny having second thoughts about this whole ordeal, because he knew Sora would have them too.

Moving to the pedestal for the digitizer, Riku set his mind to the task at hand and covered pushed his hood over his head. 

As DiZ activated the machine, however, a second sound hummed in canon with the first one. Where Riku vanished, another body was formed.   
DiZ got out of his chair to approach, before hurriedly stepping back as a fiery-eyed, furious Roxas materialized where Riku had been. Keyblade in hand. 

DiZ looked around the room and stumbled further backward. 

"What have you done?!"   
Roxas charged forward with unbridled rage. Not intending to let the figure he deemed responsible to get another word out.

"I have kept Sora's promise." Naminé spoke quietly as Roxas swiped forward, missing the man by a hair and striking his chair instead. 

+++

One moment Roxas was blinded, the next he had been knocked out. Then he had awoken to find the computer he had so thoroughly smashed back whole again. 

"Whatever game you were playing with me, it is over!" He drew his keyblade back and prepared to strike again.   
"No longer will I be your puppet!" 

In an eruption of darkness, his target, a bandaged man who had sat at the computer, vanished. Leaving only a girl in a white sundress he could have sworn he had seen before.

"Roxas" She called him, temporarily forestalling his rage. "He is looking for you, be careful." She smiled forlorn before calling the same explosion of darkness to envelop him.   
"Wait-" His words were swallowed by the darkness. 

She gathered all her courage and awaited her fate. 

Bewildered, Roxas took stock of his surroundings. Which had changed drastically. 

+++

"Naminé?" Riku wondered as he rematerialized. His eye was drawn by the thrown chair and the absence of DiZ.

"I may have enough." She looked up to Riku. "I will make it count. I won't be responsible for more sadness." She cast her eyes downward. "If DiZ wants to kill me for this, then he may." Her determination shone off her face. 

+++

Freed from his prison, Roxas felt a power well up inside him he never knew he had. It lingered in his fingertips and itched in his palms. Naminé's words echoed inside him, and the more he thought about them, he knew.  
"My dreams, they are my memories, aren't they? They needed me to lose them to stay calm and play their little game-" He wandered the moonlit garden. Staring at his hands, he thought back to all the strange anomalies he experienced in that place.

One of which came to mind. During his second fall, for only a split second, he had heard his name being called by an unfamiliar voice.

Sitting down against a defunct fountain, he focussed on what little he could remember. 

''May your heart be your guiding key" He suddenly spoke the foreign words. He hadn't ever heard the saying before. Yet his lips had spoken it as if he knew it by heart.

"..-my guiding key?.." Roxas summoned his keyblade to his hand, and despite this being the real world, it answered his call. 

+++

"I told you, it isn't that he doesn't want to go back, he simply can't!" Axel defended.   
He wasn't liking his chances. Riku had hit him harder than he cared to admit, and Xaldin was no easy opponent to snuff out. The lancer was No.3 for a reason. 

"The superior wants results, not excuses, Axel. If you can't do the job, then he will send someone who can." The lancer bade his weapon to spawn, and Axel felt his hackles raise.   
"I want Roxas back more than anyone in the Organization, you do not need to add to the motivation, Xaldin."

"Yet I have seen you do nothing other than drag your feet." The lancer spoke. "You let both our keyblade masters slip away, Axel. Give me one solid reason why the superior shouldn't terminate you."

"I told you-..."

+++

Roxas wandered in the abandoned garden and felt his residual anger drain away when he looked at the star-filled sky.   
"How do I find you?" 

He didn't need to wander much further before he heard voices arguing with one another. Roxas jolted to a stop. 

"-Give me one solid reason why the superior shouldn't terminate you. One gruff voice spoke.  
"I told you, Roxas is my best friend-"

Roxas felt his world shift whilst the conversation carried on.

"He is talking about... me?"  
Roxas peeked through the thick hedge that separated the pair. There, under the pale moonlight, someone stood with red, spikey hair.

Roxas flinched as another nova erupted behind his eyes, forcing him down on all fours. One by one, memories shot by. Memories from his dreams?

Getting back up again felt like an impossible task, yet Roxas fought. Somewhere down below the avalanche of memories he recognized raised voices and tension in the air. 

Once he tore himself loose, Roxas heard the clattering of weapons, causing his gut to churn in worry. He forced his weary self in a run before rounding the hedge and seeing two figures branding outlandish weapons face off against one another in battle.

One of which, formed an instant click with the person he had sketched in his diary. 

He pushed his feet forward, one after the other, straight into the skirmish.

"Axel." The name pushed it's way past his lips before the fight came to a very abrupt end.   
The exhausted man looked up, meeting his gaze head-on. 

"Your name is Axel." He repeated, reaffirming as if he remembered. "Isn't it?" Roxas stepped forward. 

He looked wary, but he had no way to deny the hope that shimmered underneath that. 

"Roxas?" He got up from his half-downed state, his eyes dilating whilst he gave him a once-over. "Is it- really you?"

Slowly, Roxas nodded, feeling his adrenaline kick in so hard that the world seemed to slow down.

"I.. know you." He reaffirmed, but it was still half a question. "We are friends?"

Axel, still gobsmacked, nodded before releasing one of his Chakrams back into the ether.   
"We are..." He replied, feeling all sorts of lost.

For a moment, Axel's gaze darted to Xaldin, who still stood in a battle-ready stance. Roxas turned on his heels and stared the other down. 

+++

Roxas burst from the adrenaline but did his best not to let it show. Yet now being faced by a face full of spears aimed at both him and the person he had a LOT of questions for, he defaulted back to instinct and fell into his combat stance. His keyblade blinked into existence. 

Xaldin didn't take kindly to the gesture, or so Roxas figured because with a whirl of wind they zipped forward. 

"Xaldin!" The other yelled from behind him, but Roxas trusted his instinct and connected with one of the spears, slamming it right back to where it came from before drawing a second keyblade from the ether and countering the other two with an overhead flip. 

Stunned by his own counter, Roxas braced for what came next.

Only what came next came from behind as a pair of flaming chakrams zipped past him and threw the last two spears back. 

A switch flipped in Roxas, who pivoted around one of his feet and threw the dark blade right at the lancer, who vanished right before the blade could connect. 

Exhausted, Roxas ran his wrist band by his forehead. With the adrenaline in full retreat, his body began to shut down, forcing him to kneel in order not to fall.

"Roxas-" The concern in that foreign voice ached deep within his chest. It sounded so different, coming from him.

Panting, he looked up to find the other kneeling down beside him. 

"Axel-" The name welled up inside from him, bringing with it another flurry of memories, followed by another blinding headache.

+++

The youth lay twitching in his arms, and still, he couldn't believe it.   
"Roxas-" He gave him another careful inspection, to make sure Xaldin hadn't struck him, just to be sure. But he could find no blood.   
Still, he looked in pain. 

"I can't believe this-" He stammered exasperated. "How the hell did you get out?" Carefully he wiped his messed up curls away from his forehead and immediately felt a fever on him.

"Okay okay, think. Stay calm and think-" He glanced around, but found no trace of Xaldin.   
Off in the corner of his eye, he spotted a group of shadows closing in. Axel sent out a mental command to his assassin Nobodies and they materialized into being. With the heartless temporarily taken care of, Axel came to conclude he only had one option left.

"I gotta take you back, it's the only place that is safe for you right now." Conflicted he gazed to the youth in his arms. The sight caused a jab of pain to shoot through his chest.

It reminded him of their days together, and of the days before. Back when he still knew how to feel.  
Though to be honest, he was starting to believe that whole spiel the leader had given him about their presumed lack of emotion was bogus at this point.

How else would he explain the pain he felt? The relief? The joy? The concern?

It didn't matter now, he concluded. 

"I got my friend back."

+++

Roxas, hounded by memories, tossed in his sleep. Image after image shot past him, too fast to fully register each one. But their colors told him of a place white and grey and a place gold. The smell of the sea, the taste of something sweet and salty, the sight of a lone heart-shaped moon.  
Faces without names paired with places he vaguely remembered visiting, what felt like a long time ago.

When the tide finally stemmed, he wondered whether he'd wake in his bed, or atop the clocktower. Everything was possible these days.  
But when he finally managed to pry his eyes open, he found neither.

Instead, he found himself in a different bed, situated in a white room featuring a big window. Still exhausted and stiff, he looked towards the single biggest source of light, hiding behind tumultuous clouds.

'Kingdom Hearts.' His subconscious offered, a heart-shaped moon shone through the shrouds of the clouds, casting it's pale light into his room, and over his damaged clothes. 

'I promised to free Kingdom Hearts...' His subconscious repeated, but the true meaning of that sentence evaded him still. 

"Where am I?" He mumbled, only to find that same figure that adorned those white being's heads serving as his bed's headboard.  
"Is this place real?" He wondered aloud.

"As real as it's ever gonna get." His answer came from behind him. In the doorway stood Axel. 

"No more simulations for you." The figure adopted a smile Roxas had trouble reading. Yet before he could voice a question, he held a hand up.

"You will get all the answers I can get you in a moment. First I gotta know if you are alright."

"I- think so." Roxas frowned as he did a brief self-check. "Where are we?"

"Memory is still shot I see, no worries." Axel shored up his shoulders and pulled up a grin.   
"This is The castle that never was, situated in the aptly named 'World that never was.' Original, huh?"

"Very-..." Roxas eyed him, not hiding his wariness. 

"Yeah well, I don't know who was in charge of naming the place, but I can assure you it wasn't me." He crossed his arms. "Can I come in? Talks easier."

Tentatively Roxas nodded.   
"My memory-... Do you know what happened with it?" He asked, standing up.   
Axel moved inside and remained in a corner. 

"Yeah, they messed with you good. I hope it isn't permanent, but they took away a lot of our memories."

"So I was right? You and I- we were friends?"

"Yup." He saw Axel wince a moment. "Sure are. Have been for over a year now." He smiled as his eyes turned inward. 

"Have you been looking for me? I remember you talked to me-" Roxas moved to the window, trying to focus his memories. 

"That was me alright. You didn't recognize me one bit." He smiled sallow. "The people that held you wanted you nice and blank, like a zombie, so you'd do what they'd want you to do." He crossed his arms. 

Roxas frowned. "I don't understand. Why me?"

Axel sighed troubled. "Because you were the only one who could do what they needed you to do. They wanted to wake someone up, and they needed you to do it."

Roxas pulled a disturbed look. "They locked me in a simulation just to wake someone?" He asked disbelieving. 

His expression caused Axel to break into a chuckle. "It isn't that they needed you to bop them over the head if that is what you are wondering."  
"Then what?" Roxas asked exasperated. 

"It's tricky to explain-" He lingered for a moment before pushing through. "But you are a Nobody, like me. Capital N, it's a state of existence." Axel rarely braved the sciences, but for Roxas's sake, he'd try.  
"Nobodies all have another half. Each has their own." He gestured, trying to keep himself from getting confused. "The person they wanted to wake is your other half. His name's Sora."  
Axel congratulated himself on getting that out without it sounding too confusing.

"My other half-" Roxas shook his head. "I still don't get why they need me for that..." He looked more lost than frustrated now.

"Well, the two go- shwoop-" He gestured his two hands coming together. "Two halves make a whole. You'd disappear." His voice fell on the last sentence.  
"That's why I've been trying to get you out-.."

Roxas sat back down without speaking. Mulling the answers he had gotten around in his head. 

Axel knelt down in front of him, causing Roxas to jolt in surprise.   
"This place is your home. There is a lot more to it, but this place has always been your home."

Roxas gazed a hole in the floor but eventually nodded slowly. Yet Axel saw him hesitate to speak again.   
"And the clock tower? I- in my dreams, my memories- I saw you there often."

Axel nodded, trying to find his usual smile. "Our hang-out. They copied over your strongest memories-" He couldn't help the bitterness from entering his voice. 

"Listen, Roxas. I know there is a lot more you wanna know, but I gotta step out a bit. Need to talk to our boss." He dreaded that conversation, but it was better he sought out Xemnas than for the man to send someone into this room.   
"I will be back. Gather your thoughts, 'n maybe if you feel like it, we can go for a walk." 

Roxas's eyes lit up for a moment. "Maybe- I'd like that."

Damn, he hadn't felt so- hopeful - before. It hurt. 

+++

"His memories?" The rich baritone voice belonging to Xemnas filled the room. 

"A jumbled mess." Axel was forced to admit. "But, give me time, it's in there! He will remember."

Silently, the superior glanced towards his No.8. 

"How curious. Very well, Axel. I will grant you your chance." The man turned around, leaving the sleeping Roxas behind him.   
"Don't waste it."

Axel sat down in the only chair in the room once Xemnas had gone. No need for Xemnas to hear how damned tired and stressed he felt. Yet, at the same time, when he looked to Roxas he felt a warm sensation brewing in his chest. 

He had missed that feeling. It should be impossible for him to feel it, but he didn't care to argue the point with himself right now.  
Knowing Roxas, he'd get to do enough arguing the coming days.

His body felt like a mess after Riku had put him through his paces, slowly but surely, the price for his exhaustion crept up on him.  
Sleep tugged on the fringe of his consciousness. Paired with that strange sense of relief he felt, it became impossible to resist. 

He regretted it dearly when he woke up, every bone in his body hurt. Groaning as quietly as he was able, he pried himself out of the chair, only to be met by Roxas's inquisitive stare.

"Good morning." He spoke dryly, causing a startled chortle to break loose from Axel's throat.

" 'Morning Roxas."

+++

"Kingdom Hearts, the goal we all try to achieve." Axel dangled his feet down into the abyss with more ease then Roxas could bring up.   
"I dreamed of it." He hugged his legs instead. "I saw it... grow." He spoke, questioning himself.

"Yeah, you were the one who did that, Roxas." Axel grinned. The moon's light bathed both of them. "Your keyblade helped that process along."

"Really?" He wondered, looking up to Axel.

"Yup, that's why the boss wanted you back, too. The work you did is crucial, without you, we cannot get it finished."

"What happens if it's done?" Roxas wondered.

"We get our hearts back. We won't vanish and yet we will be whole again." Axel gazed at him with hope shimmering in his eyes. 

"We don't have hearts?" Roxas felt his chest.

"Nope, only our others do. Y'know, the one they wanted to fuse you with." Axel sat back. "If we succeed, then none of us need to vanish, we will all get our own hearts." Axel's smile fell a bit.

"Thing is, we need your help to achieve that. Our boss is anxious to get us back to work again."

"I used to do this work before I lost my memories?" Roxas looked up surprised. 

"You bet." Axel couldn't help a grin. Even without memories, he felt his chest fuzz just like before.  
"Wanna come with? Maybe it'll jog your memory."

"What do I need to do?" Roxas wondered.

"Well, usually we get sent off to beat some heartless over the head. When your keyblade strikes 'em down, they release the heart they have been holding, which then goes straight up towards Kingdom Hearts." He pointed to the sky. 

"Okay... let's try." Roxas gazed ahead of himself, missing Axel's silent cheer.   
"I want to get my memories back." He turned to the suddenly attentive Nobody. "All of them. Sitting and sleeping won't help me achieve that goal." He balled his fists.   
"I want to undo whatever it was they did to me." Roxas's determination fell.

"I don't know if I can- but I have to try." He faced Axel again.

"Back when, before everything went crazy- before I learned I had been captured." Roxas brooded on his words, but Axel, for once, had the patience to let him search.

"I had this theory... You see, I kept a diary, and in it, I'd write what I remember of my dreams. Dreams of you... For the longest time I didn't understand. But-"

Roxas inhaled deep and slow as he tried to buy himself time to find the right words and started anew.

"As long as we keep thinking of each other, we are never truly apart." Roxas raised his head and saw how the other's eyes suddenly shifted.   
"I kept dreaming of you and I figured that perhaps... I was forgetting someone important." Roxas cradled himself. 

"Roxas... I said those things to you." Axel held his gaze. "Some few months ago, now." He found a smile.   
"Even if we cannot meet up here anymore, as long as we keep thinking of each other, we are never truly apart." 

"That's-..." Roxas looked at him in awe before sinking into his thoughts.   
Axel sighed with a smile. 

"Don't worry, it'll all come back." He rested his hand on the other's shoulder.

+++

"It seems your body still remembers." Axel grinned with a sense of pride swelling in his chest. The adorably confused expression that Roxas held felt like the proverbial cherry on the cake.  
He doubted he'd ever understand why he only felt like this in Roxas's proximity.

"Really?" Roxas wondered, his keyblade zipped from his hand back into the ether as they were done.

"Yup, at first I thought it could just have been the coat, ya know?" Axel laughed as he crossed his arms. "But it's more than that. I'd say you earned some 'icing on the cake!"

"Huh?" Roxas frowned.

"You'll see! Follow me."  
Bringing him back to twilight town, it was a gamble, one he hoped would pay off. 

As expected, when Axel had stepped out of the portal and Roxas arrived, he immediately froze over. 

"I know, I know what you are thinking. Trust me, this is the real thing." Axel tried to coax him out of the collapsing portal. 

+++

Warily Roxas scanned his surroundings, but aside from Axel's grin, nothing seemed off. They stood atop the clocktower. 

"You and I- we always came here after our missions were done." Axel skirted the edge with practiced ease in a somewhat strange motion, as if he was hiding something- Roxas wondered what it could be until his suspicions were proven true and his curiosity was answered.

"We always had these." Axel held up a pair of the light-blue ice-cream bars. 

"I know those-" Roxas searched his memory. "Uncle Scrooge sold them in the simulation- but they were way too pricey to buy-" He accepted one of the bars from Axel. 

"Probably to keep you from remembering something." Axel frowned for a moment, before casually sitting down, dangling his legs over the edge. 

Roxas found himself hesitating and chose to sit further back. 

"Not gonna join me?" Axel wondered, then sulked. "Don't worry-" He picked himself up in no time at all and sat down beside him, watching the sunset together.

"Thanks, Axel." Roxas offered a small smile, Axel's wide grin felt, familiar and genuine, it caused him to finally calm down and relax. 

"Hey Axel-" Roxas toyed with his ice-cream stick.   
"Mmh?" Axel looked at him.

"How did we meet?"

"Hmmm- that's a long time ago now." He grinned and took his ice-cream stick from between his lips. "Over a year ago, one and a half now? I showed you the ropes when you joined." Axel smiled, his eyes trapped by his memories.  
"You were a zombie back then, couldn't even form a proper sentence. But you learned." He chuckled. "Just like today, I took you here after our first mission, and then, well, it became a habit." He closed his eyes and hummed.  
"Didn't take long for us to become friends after that."

"How did I get captured?" Roxas wondered after minutes of outstretched silence passed. The sun still hanging just above the horizon.   
Roxas shook his head. "I cannot believe I went to them voluntarily." He frowned.

Axel sighed, he had dreaded that question. But he deserved the truth, he wasn't ready to give it to him back then. This time, he would do better.

"We got into an argument." Axel scratched the back of his neck. "You went off to find someone- " He tried his memory, but found nothing but a void. 

"I didn't tell you things I should have told you." He leaned against the warm stone of the clock tower. The memory still stung.  
"I wasn't there, but I am pretty sure Riku must have captured you."

"What didn't you tell me?" Roxas turned to face him. 

"I-... don't remember," Axel admitted. "I really don't!" He immediately defended as he realized how that sounded.  
"All I remember is that I should have told you a long time ago and that I did it because I didn't want to see you hurt. There was nothing you could do-" He groaned as his a ripple of pain shot through his head.

Roxas frowned, uncertain what to make of his allegations, or so Axel thought. 

"I wish I could remember." He sighed.

"I thought that was my line." Roxas sighed and rubbed his head. Slowly he got up, leaning against the side of the clock tower. 

"Heh, well, sharin' is carin' they say." Axel tried for some levity, but Roxas was awfully unresponsive.   
The youth even began to sway as his expression became pained. 

"Roxas?" Axel got up, but before he could do anything else, Roxas grasped his head and screamed.

He stumbled sideways as red droplets of blood stained the stonework under their feet. He listed to the left before grasping for purchase on the ledge but missed. 

"Roxas!" Axel shot forward and reached to grasp the youth's arm whilst bracing himself against the ledge. 

"Get it together!" Axel threw his weight and muscle into the battle and pulled him back up.   
Gasping for breath, Axel held onto Roxas, who now was bleeding from his nose and in a state of delirium. 

"What is- happening- to me?" Roxas asked him with eyes that tore his soul a new one. 

"Let's get you to bed-" He fought to keep his calm, but hastily summoned a portal back to the castle. 

+++

"Hey, Roxas!" The sharp yell cut through the fog that swarmed his mind. 

"What is happening-" Roxas panted. Somehow, Axel had gotten him back to the castle and into a bed. 

"The damage done to your memories is affecting you." A different voice spoke, coming from a blue-haired man with crossed arms. He looked a lot calmer than Axel did. The latter was restlessly pacing through the room.   
"Stay calm, it should pa-"

Suddenly he was torn away from his bed, the room and the pair of Nobodies that stood beside him only moments ago. Somewhere far away, a familiar voice spoke. 

"He is awakening." 

'Naminé?'

The blonde-haired girl turned around and looked at him before smiling. Beside her now stood a youth with spikey brown hair, gasping into a long yawn. 

+++

"Stop panicking, Lea." Saïx glowered. "Roxas will wake up, it will be alright." 

"Why did you need Vexen dead so badly?-" Axel hissed on a whisper as he leaned over Roxas. 

If looks could kill, his old friend would have murdered him ten times over by now, but Axel didn't care right now. 

"You asked me to help Roxas. I am helping him. It will be alright." Saïx reiterated for the third time. 

"What do you even do?!" Axel gestured. "He keeps lapsing in and out of consciousness! A little moonbeam ain't gonna change that-"

"Lea." Saïx sighed before allowing his face to defrost just a smidge. "You are panicking, no one makes wise decisions when panicking. Least of all you. Sit down and trust me."

Axel bit on his tongue to keep quiet. His chest felt like it was on fire.   
'I am panicking...' he finally concluded before forcing himself to lean against the wall. 'I don't have a heart, how in the name of Kingdom Hearts can I fucking panic?!' He held his head before forcing himself to take a couple of deep breaths. 

The berserker kept a calm eye on Roxas, who now lay tossing and turning under the pure light of Kingdom Hearts. 

+++

Saïx let out a long-held breath when he finally found Axel asleep. 

"Once, a long time ago, you used to fret like that over me." He all but whispered as he eyed the both of them. Yet for as bad as their friendship had become, he had still decided to help.

'I have never seen Axel this worried.' The berserker mused as he meditated upon kingdom hearts.

"...Saïx?" A croaky voice from behind pulled him out of his thoughts. 

"Roxas. Welcome back." He stepped to his bedside. "How do you feel?" He carefully stripped his voice from all emotion.

"I dunno-" Roxas winced. "I feel like I was whacked on the head-..." Roxas rubbed his scalp, but then sat up. 

"Do you remember?" Saïx asked, letting his control slip a little, giving his voice a softer edge.

"I-..." Roxas looked ahead as tears formed in his eyes. Something that threw Saïx for a bit, but he hid it well.

"Saïx, are we still thirteen?" Roxas asked, urgency mingling with his tears. "I cannot help but think I forgot-"

"...We are thirteen, Roxas." Saïx spoke puzzled. "Always have been." He closed his eyes. "You remember our leader?"

Roxas looked down, not responding for a minute before finally looking to him again.   
"Xemnas, this is Organization XIII, we rebuild Kingdom Hearts to become whole-" Roxas spoke faster and louder. Certainty blooming in his eyes.   
"I remember. I remember-.. everything." The certainty he spoke the sentence with fell away at the last word. 

"Good. Axel is asleep, he has been incessantly fussing over you the last twenty-four hours. Follow his example and get some sleep." Saïx concluded before making for the door. 

As it hissed shut behind him, he found exhaled slowly before finding a smile. It was gone as quickly as it had come. 

+++

The return of his memories rocked him to his core. In the silence of the night, Roxas took his time to sift through them, unifying them into a whole. Still, he felt as if he missed something, somewhere far yet so close.   
But when the night grew old, Roxas's tiredness caught up with him. Yet seeing Axel slumped against the wall, it caused a cascade of memories to wash over him as old and new unified. 

"You never stopped looking for me..." Roxas smiled and rubbed his tears away. "You never gave up." He sighed with a smile. 

Even though those last days right before his capture were still filled with gaps, he felt a fierce pain where his heart should be.   
He hadn't heard his words, that fateful day. Filled with fury, he had been focussed on only one thing. 

"I'm sorry, Axel." He sniffed up a sob before climbing out of bed and sitting beside the exhausted Nobody after throwing his blanket over him. 

"I am back now, I'll find a way to set things right." He grinned. "I got things memorized again." Roxas sat back against the wall before glancing to the sleeping red-head. 

Who was staring back at him with wide-open eyes. 

"You remember?" he asked tentatively.

Roxas nodded slowly, before allowing his smile to bleed through. 

"Really?!" 

"I do." Roxas laughed. "At least, most o-"  
"What's our boss's name?" Axel asked, sitting up straight.

"Xemnas- Saïx asked me the same what's up with that que-"

"Where did we go while on vacation for the second time?"  
"Wha-.." Roxas looked disturbed, almost did Axel's expression fell. "We went to the beach." Roxas nodded as he saw the memory play back before his eyes. 

"First mission?!" Axel frowned. 

"I don't remember" Roxas frowned. "But the first I remember you took me to Twilight Town to find a tiny treasure chest." Roxas scowled. "I think it had a potion in it-" He looked up. "Then you took me for ice-cream as icing on the cake." He grinned.

Axel stared at him without speaking for a half-a-minute, then grasped him in his arms and pushed him into a hug. 

"Owh- hey! What's the big idea-" Roxas laughed, but the other Nobody didn't. Roxas tried to look up, but Axel's stranglehold on him didn't let him. Still, Roxas had a good feeling about why that was.

He smiled as he wrapped his arms and answered the hug. 

"Thanks for never giving up on me, even though I forgot."

Hiding a sob, he spoke.   
"I told you brats I would-"

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked my self-indulgent little project, I really couldn't continue KH2 before getting this out of my system. It is just so... sad, how things happened in-game. Axel always gets the rough end of the deal it seems. 
> 
> I wrote this all in a three nights, I checked it over for legibility and consistency, but other than that it is purely self-indulgent! I love these two...
> 
> Stay safe in these difficult days! <3


End file.
